Just look at the list of who the lowest-paid people are. Pediatricians are at the bottom. You would also look at internists. You would look at psychiatrists. You would look at family physicians, HIV specialists. People who take care of chronic illnesses by seeing people carefully over time, those are the people who get the least money. The people who have the most are people like orthopedic surgeons, interventional cardiologists. And my point isn't that there is something wrong with heroism.

What is needed, however, isn't just that people working together be nice to each other. It is discipline. Discipline is hard--harder than trustworthiness and skill and perhaps even than selflessness. We are by nature flawed and inconstant creatures. We can't even keep from snacking between meals. We are not built for discipline. We are built for novelty and excitement, not for careful attention to detail. Discipline is something we have to work at.

Just using a checklist requires [doctors] to embrace different values from ones we've had, like humility, discipline, teamwork.

I learned about a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn't one of them.

The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one's life.

Arriving at an acceptance of one's mortality is a process, not an epiphany.

Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance.